Parallel Approvals in R12 iProcurement

Has anyone set-up the AME for parallel requisition approvals in R12? New AME functionality for R12 indicates that parallel approvals should work (see note 362160.1), however the solution doesn't seem to work properly.
Take the example outlined in the above note:
Example
==========
Created Purchasing Requisition (PR) Approval Rules with PO Cost Center of Line Item Attribute.
Rule#1 is defined for Cost Center = 510
Rule#2 is defined for Cost Center = 520
And each Rule has a different chain-of-authority.
Approvers of 510 are 1) John and then 2) Jim
Approvers of 520 are 1) Ben and then 2) Brown.
Create a PR and allocate expenses to 510 and 520 cost center, when submitting for approval, the PR was sent to John and Jim, then was sent to Ben and Brown respectively. There are 4 serial levels of approval required. This is the current functionality.
Expect that AME should notify to John and Ben to approve the PR at the same time (instead of doing the entire approval list of 4 approvers in serial like is currently done) and then once John approves approval notification is sent to Jim (for Cost Center 510 approval) and once Ben approves approval notification is sent to Brown (for Cost Center 520 approval).
When we set this up, the AME does indeed notify John and Ben as expected, however, if Ben is the first person to approve the PR, an approval notification is not sent to Brown until John and Jim have both approved it. For true parallel approvals, I'd expect Brown to receive a notification after Ben's approval, regardless of the actions of John and Jim.
Does anyone know if this is standard functionality, or if it's possible to configure the AME so that parallel approvals works properly?

Yes, there are two lines, with John and Jim are on one line, and Ben and Brown on the another. The set-up works becuase John and Ben are notified in parallel. The issue is that if Ben approves, a notification is not sent to Brown until Jim approves. It seems that the AME waits for the first line to complete before it progresses the second line. I just wondered if anyone else had experienced the same problem or been able to fix it.
Thx

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Parallel Approvals in AME

Hi All,
I have a question from my fellow colleague which I am not being able to respond to clearly. Hope someone can help me.
The question is about the usage of Parallel Approvals.
Can Parallel Approvals work ONLY when there is an approval group with serial also defined ?
Or do they work when Approvals are static ? Or with Single/Multiple Approval Groups ?
Thks
Ravi

Check these reference Docs
Configuring Parallel Approvers Notification [ID 471125.1]
How To Set Parallel Approvers In AME for SSHR? [ID 389753.1]
Does SSHR Support Parallel Approvals Functionality? [ID 473038.1]

Parallel Approvals -- How to send Input to Data preparation process

Hello,
I have created a parallel process with using gateways to send a form through 8 concurrent approvals; the problem is that the form only gets updated with the formdata of the quickest completed route; so ultimately data is lost from some branches when the gateway closes. (Rather than acting more so like a database where fields are locked while in use and updated with no data lost).
So I have looked into having each approval task (8 in total) use a custom action profile with a custom 'Data preparation process' which will run when a user opens the task and on the fly it will then load the latest form data (to minimize the risk of data loss; still not perfect though). But in order to do this I need to be able to pass the form data into the 'Data Preparation Process'; how can I do this?
So to summarize, 1) how do I pass variables (such as formdata) into the data preparation process; and 2) is there a better approach for parallel approvals?
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Nith,
Thank you for setting me in the right direction.
How do I map the fields from the query into the xmlPrepareData output variable?
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Hi Experts,
In my scenario, i have a process for 3 Approvals, wht i m doin nw is..after first approval's Approve, nxt approval action will be triggered and so on. After all the 3 sequential Approves, i need to update some table in SAP.
But now, i dont want other Approvals to be waiting for the first Approver's decision. I want all the three Approvers to get the VA(Visual Approval) Screen at the same time and only after all the 3 Approves by respective Approvals, i need to update SAP table.
But I m stuck over here, how can i achieve this, how to get each Approvers decision, so that after all the 3 Approvers Approve, will update that SAP table.
Please help me out with this..its very urgent...plz..
Thanks & Regards,
Runal.

Hi Runal,
You can make use of Parallel Blocks in this case.
Insert the actions for all the Approvers in the same Parallel Block.In this way,each action can be executed independent of the other within the parallel block.However,you can exit this parallel block only after all the Approvers have approved.
The actions to be executed after the Approvals can then be inserted in a Sequential Block following the Parallel Block.
For more details on parallel block, you can refer to the link below:
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/4848c8d1-0c01-0010-33b9-87a6488c48a7
Let me know if this helps.
Regards,
Gaurav.

Parallel approvals in the workflow

Hi,
Sorry, i am deleting this question as its already answered in a different thread.
Thank you.
Jim
Edited by: user578186 on May 25, 2009 7:15 AM

If you do not expand the role for a notification activity, Oracle Workflow sends one copy of the notification message to the assigned performer role and that notification is visible in the notification queue of all the users in that role. If one user in that role responds to or closes that notification, the notification is removed from the notification queue of all other users in that role. The flow will continue thereafter.

Unable to make Quantity Column Read-Only in PO Lines in R12 iProcurement

Hello Everyone,
My Requirement is if a PO is coming from a requisition and it has Requisition Number populated in PO Distribution, I want to make Quantity column Read only in the PO Lines. This column can be updated for all the lines in standard page by clicking Update button(which makes Quantity enterable).
I have tried following using SPEL Binding. But it seems SPEL Binding is not working as expected. I am pasting the code below :
I have created a Transient Attribute of Boolean Type in the VO and have placed it in SPEL Binding for the Quantity Bean. On click of Update button I am conditionally setting the transient VO attribute to False.
if(oapagecontext.getParameter("UpdateButton") != null){
super.processFormRequest(oapagecontext, oawebbean);
OAViewObject vo=(OAViewObject)am.findViewObject("PoDistributionsMergeVO");
String x=(String)vo.first().getAttribute("OnlineReqNumber");
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Row row=vo.first();
if (x!=null) {
do{
row.setAttribute("QuantityRendered",Boolean.FALSE);
row=vo.next();
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Thanks in Advance,
Abhishek Mishra

Abhishek,
Your code seems pretty fine. There are few things
1) Post the Spell, which you have attached with the rendered property.
2) Had you initialized your VO (where your transient variable exists).
For a work around i would suggest you to create a new VO and create a transient variable. Now try the same using this VO.
Regards,
Gyan

AME & AP Invoice approvals

Our customer needs to use AME with parallel approvals and with the voting paradigm ( First Responder Wins ) for AP Invoice Approval. We are on Release 12.1.1 . Is this feature currently supported and if not is there a timeline for this feature to be made available for AP Invoice Approval.

Hi,
Please see if these documents help.
Note: 473005.1 - R12: First-Responder-Wins Voting Is Not Working
Note: 743897.1 - Is It Possible To Use 'Serial' And 'Parallel' Approval Routing Together?
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Hussein

Spawning multiple approval tasks in parallel in OIM11g SOA Composite

Hi,
We are trying to implement the following scenario.
1) We are trying to develop a SOA composite for AD Group Access
2) The request dataset contains a child table for AD User Group Details which is as follows.
<AttributeReference name="AD User Group Details" attr-ref="UD_ADUSRC" type="String" length="20" widget="text" available-in-bulk="true">
<AttributeReference name="Group Name" attr-ref="Group Name" type="String" length="400" widget="lookup" available-in-bulk="true" lookup-code="Lookup.ADReconciliation.GroupLookup" primary="true"/>
</AttributeReference>
3) Consider the user is already provisioned to AD.
4) User now tries to request for AD Group Access by using a request template
5) The request dataSet for the resource "AD Group Access" will be displayed where the user would "Add" the group(s) to which (s)he want access.
6) Once the request is sumbitted the associated SOA composite would be executed.
7) Now, in the SOA composite the logic should be as follows:
a. For each group selected, there is a corresponding dataApprover who should approve the request.
b. Once the dataApprover approves the request it goes to the next approver who is securityApprover.
c. Once the securityApprover approves the request, the request should go thru and the user should get the membership in the AD Group.
d. Since "AD User Group Details" is a child form in the request dataset, the user can add multiple groups in the same request.
e. If there are muliple groups selected in the same request, then the same request should spawn parallel approval tasks for all corresponding dataApprovers and securityApprovers.
f. Then the user should get membership to those AD Groups for which the corresponding dataApprover and securityApprover had approved the request.
e. If a dataApprover or securityApprover rejects the request then the user shouldn't get membership to the respective group. However, this shouldn't prevent the user from getting membership to other groups for which dataApprover-securityApprover approval was done.
The dataApprover and securityApprover for the groups are stored in a db table mapping to the corresponding group name.
We have implemented a SOA composite for which the logic is fine if we add only one group in the child table of request dataset. As per the current implementation, when a user submits the request, the dataApprover and securityApprover for the selected group are fetched from the table and the global variables in SOA composite are set with the ID of dataApprover and securityApprove using setVariableData. These are sting variables. These variables are used in the approval task. The approval task has two "Single Type" participants - dataApprover and securityApprover. These participants fetch the value of dataOwner and securityOwner from the global variables set using setVariableData.
Now, as mentioned above, if mutiple groups are added like group1, group 2 etc. then there should be multiple approval tasks spawned in parallel that will be approved/rejected by dataApprover1-securityApprover1, dataApprover2-securityApprover2 etc. Depending on the output (approve/reject) the user should get membership to appropriate groups.
Any inputs on how to modify the current composite to spawn multiple approval tasks in parallel depending on the number of groups added from the requestDataSet would be helpful.
Regards,
Swaroop

Single request id then you are bit safe. The way to do it would be:
1. Set the dataApprovers as a comma separated list of all the data approvers for all the groups.
2. Set the securityApprovers as a command separated list of all the security approvers for all the groups.
3. In Human Task assign the first stage to all the dataApprovers and second stage to securityApprovers.
Cons of this approach are:
1. All the approvers would see all the data and they might be confused what they are approving.
2. securityAppprovers for say group1 won't get the item untill all the dataApprovers approve the request even though dataApprover has approved the request for group1.
3. Would be hard to implement the rejection cases; depending upon how you want to handle the rejections. For e.g. what if any dataApprover rejects the request? Should the whole request be rejected? If so what would happen to those which have already been approved by dataApprovers? Same case goes for securityApprovers. Again since you cannot modify the requested data once the request is submitted; thus you cannot remove the rejected groups from the request.
4. You provisioning won't trigger untill all dataApprovers and all securityApprovers have approved the request.
5. Any one approve from comma separated list of approvers would approve the request. Thus you cannot make sure that all the approvers should approve the request. The workaround would be to create parallel stages in human task and assign one group/approver to one parallel stage. This would mean that you will have to hard code the number of parallel approvals which can be generated in your BPEL human task (This would again depend upon the number of groups requested). To workaround this you could use BPEL extenal routing program where you can pragmatically assign tasks but again since there is no entitlement based request engine in OIM, thus there would be issues there too.
As a workaround, make sure that you allow only one group to be requested per request and reject the request outright if multiple groups are requested in a single request. You will need to buy in the business on this one.
Have heard the grapevine that 12G which is in the pipeline would have entitlement based request engine and also would allow for modification of request data once the request is submitted.
HTH,
BB

Parallel Approval in Self Servie HR (SSHR)

Hi All,
We have a requirement in which we need to send approval to multiple people at once. And if any approver approves the transaction, it should be considered approved and should not require any further approvals.
According to the metalink note 473038.1, parallel approval is not possible in SSHR but the workaround is available using Roles in HRMS.
I tried using this workaround and it seems only half of this solution is working and half not. It sends approvals and it is visible in Worklist but not sending any approval emails for approvers. Approver has to go into SSHR and has to approve the transaction. There is no push notification or any other way for approver to know that there is any action pending for his attention. Is there any solution which can send approval mails? Or any other solution for the parallel approvals?
Thanks for help in advance.
Regards,
CAH

Hi,
Thanks for looking into the issue.
I can receive the FYI notifications. So the notification mailer is up. Also, for other transactions, where only one approver is required, I am able to receive the notification. So Notification Style is also not disabled.
Any other thought?
Thanks,
Chirag

IProcurement is not a valid responsibility for the current user. Please contact your System Administrator.

Hi All,
When I am trying to click on the 'iprocurement Home page' menu in the iprocurement responsibility getting the below error message in R12;
"iProcurement is not a valid responsibility for the current user. Please contact your System Administrator."
Can any one let me know how to resolve this?
Regards
Joseph

Hi Joseph,
I am assuming that the user actually has the iProcurement responsibility assigned to them. If so, try the following solution from note 1560400.1:
1) Logon with System Administrator responsibility
2) Navigate to Profile > System, click on User and enter the user name
3) Search for profile 'Applications Start Page'. Delete the value set at user level and save
4) Retry
Regards,
Cheryl

Problem in Dynamic Parallel processing using Blocks

Hi All,
My requirement is to have parallel approvals so I am trying to use the dynamic parallel processing through Blocks. I cant use Forks since the agents are being determined at runtime.
I am using the ParForEach block. I am sending the &agents& as a multiline container in 'Parallel Processing' tab. I have user decision in the block. Right now i am hardcoding 2 agents in the 'agents' multiline element. It is working fine..but i am getting 2 instances of the block.I understand that is because I am sending &AGENTS& in the parallel processing tab.. I just need one instance of the block going to all the users in the &AGENTS& multiline element.
Please let me know how to achieve the same. I have already searched the forum but i couldnt find anything that suits my req.
Pls help!
Regards,
Soumya

Yes that's true when ever you try to use ParForEach block then for each value entry in the table a separate workitem ID is created, i.e. a separate instance is created that paralle processing is not possible like that
Instead of that what you can do is create a fork with 3 branches and define a End Condition such that until all 3 branches are executed .
Before to the fork step determine all the agents and store them in a internal table , you can access the one internal table entry by using the index value check this [wiki|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/wiki?path=/display/abap/accessingSingleEntryfromMulti-line+Element] to access single entry from a internal table.
For each task in the fork assgin a agent
So, as we have defined the condition that until all the three branches are executed you don't want to come out of the fork step so, it will wait until all the stpes are completed.

AP Invoice Approval R12

Hi ,
How to setup AP Invoice Approvals in R12 ? can anyone please provide the steps ?
Is AME required for this , if yes can anyone please provide the steps ?
Thanks in advance,
Thejas

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APINV - How Do I Setup AP to Use Invoice Approval Workflow? [ID 315269.1]
FAQ for Approvals Management (AME) Integration For Oracle Payables [ID 1302542.1]
Regards,
Tarun

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When I click Next on the Approvals Page in iProcurement during checkout, an error occurs 'Approval list incomplete,Please select a valid cost center manager to submit the requisition'. Please can anyone tell how to get rid of it? Thanks in advance.

Hi please check approval hierarchy. person who is creating the requisition that person have correct hierarcby.
For testing purpose, you give full amount access and check self approval.

How does CLOSED_CODE updated in PO_LINES_ARCHIVE_ALL table

Hi,
How does CLOSED_CODE column will be updated in PO_LINES_ARCHIVE_ALL table. We have setup "Archive On Approve" for archiving.
Does below is a valid check to verify the line count between lines table and archive table?
We are comparing the line count in Lines table and Archive table, and if there is difference in count, then it is assumed to be change in the Lines,
so then direct the PO Approval Worfkflow for re-approval.
Kindly suggest if below check is correct or not, especially check on CLOSED_CODE='OPEN'.
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Regards,
Ram

Sathyaseelan wrote:
Hi All,
After creating requisition from R12 iProcurement , the column document_type_code in the table PO_REQUISITION_LINES_ALL got updated as BLANKET or CONTRACT.
Need to know how these values was defaulting in the requisition.
I am able to see the values soon after added the item to shopping cart.
Regards,
SathyaI think whatever the item is in the requistion..It should be associated with the blanket or contract agreement..that the reason why you are seeing that document type code
HTH
Mahendra

How to transition to a group of activities

I have a workflow in which parallel approvals from multiple people are needed. The list of approvers can only be queried at run time. If any of them approves it, the workflow will continue.
My understanding is that Manual Action can only be assigned to one person. Should I create mutiple activities, and how?
Thank you very much,

You need to create a list of the approvers first., create a sub-workflow which is going to itenrate on the list of approvers and will call the apporval subprocess(which has the manual action).
When calling the approval sub process on iteration, do check for allapproval or or allreject conditions.

Parallel Approvals in R12 iProcurement

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